Archive for May 14, 2012

Some kind person rejoicing in the name of nogorecords has helpfully uploaded the entirety of CAR OF DREAMS, directed by Graham Cutts and Austin Melford.

Since Cutts is enjoying probably his first bout of fashionability since shooting his last movie in 1940, I thought it’d be nice to link to this. Also, because my late friend Lawrie remembered it fondly, and could still hum the theme tune after about seventy years.

The title song is at 16:50.

Cutts is getting some attention because half of a film of his, THE WHITE SHADOW, was rediscovered after being lost for decades. Unfortunately for Cutts, the excitement this caused was all because of a novice filmmaker called Alfred Hitchcock, who wrote the script, art directed, designed the sets, edited the film and served as assistant director. Cutts seems to have found his young assistant a trifle uppish, so I imagine he might not be pleased at being usurped all over again.

CAR OF DREAMS is a very mild musical comedy, of some interest for the performance of John Mills, a former Noel Coward chorus boy (and I’m sure none of us have any idea what THAT entailed) who rarely got to exercise his musical comedy chops on screen.

British musicals, asides from Jessie Matthews, George Formby and a few wonderful one-offs like BUGSY MALONE and THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, have never really been a great thing on the screen. So this is an intriguing novelty.